Information and commentary about the struggle for democracy in the African kingdom of Swaziland

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

SWAZI DRUG SHORTAGE CRISIS DEEPENS

Parliamentarians in
Swaziland have given the government seven days to sort out the drugs shortage
crisis crippling public health facilities in the kingdom.

E236 million (US$18
million) is reportedly owed and drug companies have suspended delivery of
medicines until bills are paid.

The House of Assembly
debated the crisis on Thursday (18 May 2017) and agreed a motion compelling
Minister for Health Sibongile Simelane to ensure the availability of drugs in
hospitals within seven days.

The Swazi Observer reported members of parliament wanted to know what
had happened to the E1 billion allocated to health in the national budget in
February 2017. ‘They wanted to know if the money they passed was real money or
it was just numbers,’ the newspaper reported.

The Times of Swaziland
reported the House of Assembly, ‘called
for the suspension of all other projects while this matter was being sorted,
wondering what benefit would be achieved if the country had beautiful roads or
buildings yet had a dying nation’.

Medicines currently
unavailable in the kingdom’s health facilities include drugs for sexual
transmitted infections, epilepsy, hypertension and diabetes.

Swaziland, where King Mswati III rules as sub-Saharan
Africa’s last absolute monarch, came last in a study of the healthiest nations
in the world in 2015.

It came bottom out of 145 countries in the World’s
Healthiest Countries report published by Bloomberg. Data for the report was
compiled from the United Nations, the World Bank and the World Health
Organisation.

The Bloomberg
rankings gave each country with a population of 1 million
or more a health score and a health-risk score.

Each country’s place was calculated by subtracting
their risk score from their health score.

The health score is based on factors such as life
expectancy from birth and causes of death, while health-risk is based on
factors which could impede health such as the proportion of young people who
smoke, the number of people with raised cholesterol and the number of
immunisations.